Freddy: The Brad Fittler Story

Description

there have been few better players in the game of Rugby League than Brad 'Freddy' Fittler. He's the boy from a broken home in Sydney's welfare wasteland who pulled himself up by his football bootlaces to captain his State and his country. Fittler, who retired after 16 seasons and almost 450 games at the very highest level, never forgot where he came from. He retained the same larrikin good nature that endeared him to his mates in his days at the Penrith club, which he helped win its first premiership. Later, with the silvertails of the eastern suburbs, he took part in another premiership win. He captained NSW to State of Origin victory and made a celebrated comeback to the Blues. Fittler's rise is much more than a sports story. It examines the issues that divide Australia. Like few others, he's straddled that divide. Drugs and beer and wild parties punctuated his youth. there was the tragedy of the death of one of his closest mates; the Super league saga; his own drunken episode outside a Sydney police station; being jailed in Mexico; the narrow escape from a woman out to get him; the male stalker - all these stories and more are told with characteristic honesty. It's a story that will make you laugh and make you cry. It offers a rare insight into the workings of some of Australia's best sporting teams.

Brad Fittler is the ex Penrith and Roosters playmaker, NSW Origin's most capped player and former captain of the Australian team. He is now a regular on both editions of The Footy Show, provides sideline commentary on all the big matches, and recently coached the Sydney Origin team. HarperCollins published his 2005 autobiography, Freddy, with great success. Richard Sleeman is one of Australia's best known sportswriters and broadcasters. He's a former National Press Club Australian sportswriter-of-the-year, and has written for a number of newspapers like The Australian and the Daily Telegraph as well as contributing to Good Weekend and other leading magazines. Sleeman has also presented sport on radio and is currently executive producer of sport programs at 2UE. As a longtime chronicler of rugby league, he has followed the exploits of all the code's greats, from Gasnier to Fittler, and has also acted as business agent for a number of the game's star players. He lives in Neutral Bay, Sydney.